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Kasturirangan report must be reworked on ground reality
In Short
Rather than satellite-based mapping carry out physical surveys across Malnad: Shivalinge Gowda urges Centre
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Kasturirangan report must be reworked on ground reality
Hassan: Hassan in-charge and Excise Minister K M Shivalinge Gowda urged the Union government on Sunday to survey Kasturirangan-report areas by foot and to prepare a new reading based on ground realities. At a public interaction on the report, held under Chief Minister D K Shivakumar’s chair at the APMC yard in Sakleshpura, he argued that satellite-based mapping had missed the actual picture. “Staff should move across Malnad, carry out physical surveys and note what exists on the land,” he said. “Households that have lived for generations on forest fringes are struggling to secure titles under Section 94C because those pockets were placed inside the eco-sensitive zone of the Kasturirangan report. The Bhoogyaranti scheme was introduced by the state to protect their hold on land. Fringe dwellers are not damaging nature and are protecting the forests so their interests must be protected,” he added. The Praja Seva campaign in Sakleshpura on Saturday received more than 500 applications, many of them from people on forest boundaries asking for land titles. Applying the Kasturirangan recommendations would, he claimed, create difficulties for coffee, cardamom and pepper cultivators and for agricultural labourers.
“People in the listed zones could find it hard to construct houses, make roads and obtain basic infrastructure; even a drinking-water well might require the Centre’s leave. The restrictions have caused apprehension among residents who have spent years in the Western Ghats and fear the loss of house and field,” he said.
Through the Praja Seva department and a legal framework for complaints, he said, the state has sought to take administration nearer to citizens. Implementation, he alleged, could eventually uproot people, including tribal communities, from the sensitive areas named in the report. Among those present were A S Ponnanna, secretary to the Chief Minister, BDA chairman A K Harris, Hassan MP Shreyas Patel, Sakleshpura MLA Cement Manju and Sringeri MLA T D Rajegowda.
